I can't wait!!!

[RTR]

Well, I cannot see well enough to operate a camera, and photography is one of her hobbies. She also dislikes having her picture taken. She likely would have declined. I am hardly a male model, but I also do not fret about it.

[Pufferpunk]

How does she keep herself looking so youthful? She looks younger than me!

[RTR]

LOL! She will love that comment! She is actually late for retirement. And her job is high-stress with long hours. But she is younger than I am and thank goodness much healthier. She is a gym rat plus did belly-dancing for years while there was a local teacher she liked - unfortunately she moved her studio to Hagerstown recently and that is too far to commute regularly. She also eats much healthier than I do.

[Biff Malawi]

What a wonderful insight into the life of someone we all trust and respect. As I head down the road of ever increasing physical maladies, I hope that I can weather them with the strength and and grace you appear to be. I take my hat off to you sir.

PP lookin good as always.

[bertie 83]

What a wonderful insight into the life of someone we all trust and respect. As I head down the road of ever increasing physical maladies, I hope that I can weather them with the strength and and grace you appear to be. I take my hat off to you sir.

PP lookin good as always.

Here here. What I was thinking

[RTR]

We did plan for worst-case scenarios. At the time many of our friend were moving into larger development houses, we custom-built for what we really wanted for our retirement home. It is actually smaller than our prior home, but fully designed for what we wanted for ourselves and for our retirement home. No seated dinners for more than 8 (usually fewer), no more than a couple of house guests, parties (standing or sitting for no more than 24). We missed a bit on the pool room - I can no longer play, as I have no depth perception anymore, along with somewhat distorted vision). I also can no longer drive, and we fairly recently got rid of my last full-sized car. If we need something bigger, renting is far cheaper and easier than owning. The gardens were intensive originally (my other time- and work-requiring hobby), but are currently being converted to low-upkeep plantings. We do have a good bit of deck space, which in summer is generally loaded with tropical plants (not this year, deck repair and resurfacing), but that can be reduced as needed to levels I can still manage. The tank room will be re-done with fewer but slightly larger tanks. All of those already are low upkeep and will be still more automated after the rebuild. A young landscape architect (the son of fiends of ours) is fully up on the care and upkeep of the gardens (including the bananas), and already does the heavy work. Our artworks (not all on display) and our musical instruments (most my wife's, a few mine) and the house will eventually go to our son and a niece (who wants to retire here, our son will likely stay on the West Coast). The tanks and equipment will go to the owner of the local pet store (a long-time fiend) when I go away. The present fish room then will become part of the pool room. The other fish room (currently just tank and equipment storage) will become just tempered storage space.

You cannot plan for everything, but where you can, it is worth doing. Changing pre-existing plans is easier than starting from scratch, especially in times of stress.

[Pufferpunk]

If I had more time I would had offered to help with the tanks. Maybe if I go back next year, I'll come a few days earlier!

[RTR]

You would be welcome, but I hope we can get the rebuild done by then. Part of that depends on how long my hands take to be repaired.